I farm: “Dairy, beef and tillage in Co Offaly with my father PJ.”

Cows: “We are farming over 130ac and operate a 65-cow spring-calving herd and supply milk to Arrabawn. We rear all calves and are happy with how cows are milking. They are producing 22 litres, on average. The fat is 4.6% and protein is 3.8% with the SCC sitting around 40. Milk prices are averaging around 48.6c/l.”

Grass: “Growth rates have improved in recent weeks, so the cows were getting 4kg of meal per day but this has since been reduced to 2kg. Grass growth is certainly back on previous years.”

This week: “We are finished second-cut silage so are hoping to get out manure and we will see about a third cut, but we should have enough fodder to see us through the winter as it stands. We might try and get calves dosed also.”

Technology: “This is our second year using [health monitoring] boluses and we are very happy with them. We get a notification on the phone 12 to 15 hours before a cow will calve and we find them very accurate for heat detection, along with picking up sick cows such as those with mastitis, milk fever or grass tetany, and allows us time to react.”

Improvements: “We recently put in a new parlour which is working very well for us, and in the future we hope to build a new slatted tank and more cubicles for future herd expansion.”

Crops: “Our spring barley has come on well, although it won’t be as good as previous years due to the poor weather conditions. We have cut back on the amount of straw we use, and have started to use milled peat which keeps the cows comfortable, clean and dry. It was hard to get last year.”